We took a trip to Matthiessen State Park yesterday and went on a different hike than our usual tour of the upper and lower dells. We parked in the Vermilion River end of the park and took the horse trails into the dells area. One turn wasn’t well marked and…

Created by Liam

All summer I’ve been taking the Metra to work. It’s been a great commute consisting of a short bike ride, a 20 minute train ride (air conditioning, always an empty seat), then a 3-mile bike ride through a forest to work. Next week is back to the regular commute which…

Things like this make me wonder if we as a society are truly falling apart. In Costco, somebody (or maybe 3 people) opened a box of oatmeal, pulling one of the inside packets halfway out then leaving it like that. Nearby was something that had been taken from the freezer…

We’ve had a fun visit with Mom and Dad this weekend. Here they are sitting in the backyard during cocktail hour We have some new yard art. Comments so far include “I would have thrown that away,” “You’re going to make the place look like Sanford and Son,” and an…

We didn’t have a lot of cherry tomatoes, so our first crop this summer is the beefsteak tomato variety, and the heirloom variety. We’re having tomatoes for dinner! Check out this crazy heirloom tomato, with lines in the skin and an almost purple color. We already had one of these,…

I thought we’d start out on a new blog address with a picture of Liam’s new haircut. He even got some gel called “hair glue” for the front!

Liam and Miles had their last day at LPCC last Friday, and the day finished with performances by each of the groups. Here’s Liam’s group pushing him in the parade float, and Liam dancing with the other junior counselors. I filmed most of Miles’s show and a very small bit…

This is the second in an unlimited photo series of animals relaxing around our house. (The carpenter’s dog Iggy asleep on our couch was the first.) What is this squirrel thinking, that it’s part cat or something? Speaking of cats, there is a cat who likes to sleep on our…

One interesting thing I saw at UIUC was the Morrow Plot. This plot of corn has been continuously studied for over 100 years, and is right on campus. A few years ago when they wanted to build a new undergraduate library next door to the plot, they couldn’t because the…